Infamously anonymous

They have been the subject of endless discussion, yet nobody knows who they are.
D.B. Cooper

Dan or D.B. Cooper is the alias for a hijacker who is infamous for taking over a commercial plane leaving Portland, Oregon the day before Thanksgiving in 1971. The 40-something-looking man gave the fake name Dan Cooper and, during the flight, told the flight attendant of a bomb in his briefcase. He demanded four parachutes and $200,000 in $20 bills, about $1.2 million in today’s dollars, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica. After the plane landed and let out passengers, they refuelled, and Cooper forced the pilots and flight attendant to keep the aircraft flying under 10,000 feet at slower than 200 knots. Then he parachuted out of the plane with the ransom money in hand. No one ever identified, caught, or even heard from him again. And although he used the name Dan Cooper, a reporter misheard this as D.B. Cooper thus starting his false but popular nickname. Of course, some people claim they know the real identity of Cooper – like this former FBI agent – but the case is still officially unsolved, making it one of the strangest unsolved mysteries of all time. Here are the others….
Banksy

An anonymous British graffiti artist who goes by “Banksy” has remained a mystery since he came onto the art scene in 1993. His art – with displays often on public bridges, tunnels, and walls – has dark humour and comments on political and social issues, too. His creativity extends to the screen, also, in his documentary Exit Through The Gift Shop. But even with all the notoriety for his work, the true identity of Banksy remains a mystery. Although he rarely does interviews, they’ve always been through email or sent via an altered voice tape recording. In one of the weirdest stories of 2018, one of Banksy’s paintings partially shred itself after being sold at auction – the artist had installed a paper shredder inside the painting.